Bucknell (SID): Bucknell Men Make it Four Straight, 75-64 at Cornell
Mike Muscala had 20 points and nine rebounds, Bryan Cohen finished with 17 points and eight rebounds…
The National League Gold Glove winners were announced today, and Shane Victorino was the lone representative on the Phillies to take home a trophy. It is his third straight award for defensive excellence. Chase Utley, who is perhaps the best defensive second baseman in the league got shut out again, as did Jimmy Rollins, although his lack of playing time due to injuries likely played into that.
Other winners included: Bronson Arroyo (P – CIN), Yadier Molina (C – STL), Albert Pujols (1B – STL), Brandon Phillips (2B – CIN), Scott Rolen (3B – CIN), Troy Tulowitzki (SS – COL), Carlos Gonzalez (LF – COL), and Michael Bourn (CF – HOU). [Zo Zone]
The ever increasing pressure on Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has reached a new height after City’s disappointing Europa League defeat at Lech Poznan. It is now three straight defeats for Mancini and now means Sunday’s trip to West Brom, a ground where City have already tasted defeated this season, is crucial.
A trip to Poland on a wet Thursday night was always going to be difficult, but with the strength of City’s squad most would have expected them to return with a solid European win. Once again though Mancini found that his opponents raised their game meaning a tough trip became even harder.
This is becoming the norm this season. City have become a big scalp and in attempting to beat them, sides raise their game accordingly. Mancini has found this very difficult to deal with. The expectation of the club and it’s fans are that City should win most games comfortably, where in reality an easy win won’t be the norm.
It doesn’t help Mancini that his own players further add to the expectations of the fans with wild claims about their ability. Ahead of the Poznan game outspoken Mario Balotelli set out his ambitions for his time in Manchester.
Speaking to the official City website he said: “I want to be the best player in the world. It is good to have ambition. I’ve said in the past that I don’t care what other people want or expect of me because I know what I want.
“I will always give everything because I want to become the best. That is my aim and I am determined to make it happen. I am here at City to play Champions League football, that’s the competition I want to be in and that is what all the players here want to play in.”
I’m sure Balotelli was only looking to drum up some excitement ahead of his expected start against Poznan, but when City fans, and maybe even the clubs hierarchy read comments like that they will be expecting big things of the striker, and ultimately the City side. This makes disappointing results feel a lot worse when they arise.
Unfortunately for Mancini you have to feel that too many of these disappointing results have occurred and it seems only a matter of time before Sheikh Mansour will be looking for a new boss. Whoever comes in to replace Mancini should make lowering expectations his top priority, because if he doesn’t he will soon face the same fate as Mancini.
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Well, after three games, a theme has emerged.
The Pistons cannot hold a lead. Against New Jersey and Oklahoma City, the problems were at the defensive end. In Saturday’s 101-91 loss to Chicago, the problems were at both ends of the court as the Bulls out-scored the Pistons 34-9 in the fourth quarter and erased what was at one time a 21-point Pistons lead.
It was the third straight game the Pistons should’ve closed out, the third straight team the Pistons did enough right to look like a competent NBA team and the third straight game we watched with a helpless feeling, sensing what was coming as Chicago chipped and chipped away at that lead without any sign of a response from Detroit.
After three games, it’s safe to ask. Why does the team look so good at times, good enough to build leads against two sure playoff teams, yet can’t hold on?
They are in games because their bench, offensively at least, is going to be superior to virtually every team they play this season. Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva (and Will Bynum when he’s healthy) will come in and abuse virtually any second unit player on any other team at their respective positions. Against the Bulls, the Pistons bench topped 40 points for the third straight game. Gordon couldn’t miss in the first half, Villanueva hit a couple big threes. They’re both streaky and will have some off nights shooting, but it’s a safe bet that they’ll also keep the Pistons in a lot of games by simply out-scoring the opponent’s bench.
The starters, on the other hand, will struggle to score most nights. None are what I would call poor players, but it’s going to be rare that any of the five starters on the Pistons will be better offensive players than their positional counterparts. The starters play better defense as a unit, they turn it over less as a unit, but they will inevitably rarely outscore the opposing starters.
The simple answer is, “Why not flip Gordon or Villanueva to the starting lineup?”
Well, the Bulls game proved why that won’t work. Gordon and Villanueva were very good in the first half. Gordon was being guarded at times by Kyle Korver and C.J. Watson. Villanueva was matched up with Brian Scalabrine for a long stretch. Hard not to look good against those players. But then Chicago adjusted in the second half and shortened their bench. When Gordon and Villanueva came in in the third, Chicago left Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah in up front for a bit. They also left Derrick Rose in, meaning Gordon would have to guard him some when Rodney Stuckey went out of the game.
It wasn’t pretty. Gordon didn’t make a shot in the second half and had three turnovers during a key Chicago run. John Kuester went back to Rip Hamilton, who didn’t have a good game offensively, for most of the fourth, and despite some beat writers protesting on Twitter — “But Gordon has 21 points and Rip only has five!!!” — Kuester had to do it. Hamilton wasn’t shooting it well, but at least he wasn’t booting the ball all over the court when he tried to put it on the floor the way Gordon was. Gordon also struggled to get shots off when Keith Bogans or James Johnson guarded him in the second half.
Villanueva shot it well through three quarters, then when Gibson started guarding him in the fourth, Villanueva went 0-for-6 from the field in the quarter.
Austin Daye had another non-existent game as a starter, and I’ve written previously that I think Villanueva has out-played him and will eventually supplant him as a starter. Although I still feel that Villanueva is the better option at the four right now, putting him in the starting lineup, or putting Gordon in the starting lineup, would eliminate really the only advantage the Pistons have right now, their bench scoring.
The Chicago meltdown was by far the ugliest to watch, made worse by the fact that I had to watch the game on League Pass and listen to Stacy King and whoever Chicago’s other broadcaster is blather on and on about nonsense. The Pistons were once again competitive. But unlike the OKC and NJ games, which were back-and-forth all game long, the Pistons were firmly in control of this game and lost it. Good teams sometimes lose games like the ones the Pistons lost in their first two. But bad teams always lose games the way the Pistons lost against Chicago.
Pat Caputo can rest easy: Greg Monroe has finally played in a regular season game. With the Pistons in control in the first half, Monroe played seven minutes, made his only shot and had three rebounds. Not bad. But he also had three fouls in seven minutes and turned it over once, setting an illegal screen. I’ve written it often, but rookie big men generally take longer to adjust to the NBA than other rookies. There’s much more contact in the post, players are stronger and it’s simply hard not to foul a lot. Monroe looked comfortable and hopefully he’ll build on the little bit of time he saw tonight.
Through three games as a Piston, Tracy McGrady has looked a little reluctant to shoot. That’s never a sentence I thought I’d write about McGrady. He shot 1-for-3 and scored his first two points of his Pistons career and also had four rebounds and an assist. The bad? Three turnovers in 17 minutes. McGrady has a long ways to go (if he has anything left) to be a helpful player to the Pistons, but I do appreciate that he hasn’t tried to force things when he’s been on the court. He had one nice play where he drove past Korver and found Jason Maxiell for what would’ve been a dunk had Max not been fouled. Unfortunately, he also had one of his shots deflected by Korver (not sure it can be called a block … it was an awkward play and Korver kind of got his hand on a shot that appeared to slip out of McGrady’s hand a little bit), which is another sentence I never thought I’d write about McGrady.
Rodney Stuckey has been the biggest positive for the Pistons through three games. Stuckey has 23 assists and only four turnovers, he’s making good decisions and he’s getting to the line a lot. Including his 11 free throws against the Bulls, Stuckey is averaging over seven attempts per game. He didn’t shoot it well in the second half against the Bulls — going just 1-for-6. I believe Stuckey should be a 47 percent or better shooter this season, if it’s going to be called a successful season for him, and he’s at 46 percent right now. With his improved decision-making, however, he’s been the most important player on the court for the Pistons, particularly with Bynum out, making Stuckey the only point guard-like player on the roster.
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You know you’ve done a good job when you make David Jones backtrack and say his 6-6 prediction might be incorrect. 20-29, 239 yards, 2 Tds, 1 Int. You know the stats. Now we’ve got a week to combine faith in coaching and an understanding for our opponent to come out with a mix of respect and anticipation that allows us to honestly like our chances, but not disrespect the situation. Got that? Ok, cool.
Before we get to the that, lets see how the rest of the blogosphere took the Lion’s beat-down of the Penguins. Monday’s are going to work as a combination of recaps and the usual Nitt Links. Lets hop to it.
—Recaps—
(If you blog on a regular basis and review the games be sure to let us know, I just did a quick run down of the blogroll, if you want some credit for your work let us know. The more viewpoints the better)
I’m going to leave sarcastic comments out of this section. Not going to knock our fellow bloggers.
Penn State-Youngstown State Player Interviews | NittanyWhiteOut
Penn State–Youngstown State Review | Victory Bell Rings
Linebacker-U.com :: Review: Penn State 44, Youngstown St 14
The Lion’s Den: PSU Powers Past Penguins
–Hot Topics—
PSU’s focus turns to No. 1 Alabama | PoconoRecord.com
Go ahead and write Penn State off already. I understand why you would. I think this team has 60mins of upset minded football in them though. We are…
PSU volleyball streaks keep going – Center Daily Times
If you win 108 games in a row I’ll give you some love.
The Associated Press: No. 1 Alabama rolls past San Jose State, 48-3
Rumor has it Jesus Tim Tebow gave a halftime speech to the already God-like defense of Alabama.
—Best Of The Rest—
Penn State: Penn State’s quarterback decision two years in the making – mcall.com
Story time– About a third of the way into the game I yelled to one of my friends within earshot..”Hey, where is that Devlin kid?” This question apparently offended my fellow classmates who responded 3 times to ” He left Penn State and went to Delaware” Now I know…my bad.
WDEL 1150AM – Devlin throws for three as UD whips WCU
I’m only posting this to catch up with our man Pat. He’s making a name for himself which is all anybody should ask for. I’m positive this will lead to some sort of epic 2 year Devlin, Newsom, Clark battle.
Coaches opposed to Big Ten divisions – ESPN
This is two days old, but it’s a nice take on what will happen to Big Ten basketball post Big Ten Division-ClusterPryor
Thats all for today. More will be out tomorrow after everybody and their brother is done copying AP articles reviewing the game and pretending thats the same thing as writing their own peice.Zing..